The term has several senses:
# In the loosest sense, it refers to a stabilizing mount for a motion-picture camera, which mechanically isolates the movement of the camera from that of the operator, providing a very smooth shot even when the operator is moving quickly over an uneven surface.
# Many familiar with the general concept use it to refer to the combined assembly of mount and camera.
# "Steadicam" is a registered Trademark of Tiffen for their camera stabilizers.
For the remainder of this article, "steadicam" will be used in the first sense.
For static shots, a motion picture camera is typically stabilised with a Tripod , or one of a variety of mounting systems which place the camera firmly on the ground.
Traditionally, for moving (or "tracking") shots, a director has two basic choices. Typically, the camera is mounted on a Dolly —a wheeled camera mount that rolls on tracks or levelled boards. This has the advantage of permitting smooth camera movement, but takes time to set up, and can be impractical in certain situations. The director must compose the shot's movement so as to prevent the tracks or boards from appearing on screen.
Alternatively, the director can use "hand-held" camera work, in which the camera operator holds the camera in his hands. This has the advantage of speed and flexibility. With sufficiently small and lightweight cameras, camera operators can obtain shots that would otherwise be impossible. Even the most skilled camera operator cannot prevent the image from shaking, if only minutely, due to his body's natural movements. Hand-held footage has traditionally been considered suitable mostly for Documentaries , News , reportage work, live action, unrehearsable footage, or as a special effect to evoke an atmosphere of authentic immediacy during dramatic sequences. The gritty police television drama '' NYPD Blue '' became quite famous for its use of hand-held camera work as a dramatic element.
A essentially combines the stabilised steady footage of a conventional tripod mount with the fluid motion of a dolly shot and the flexibility of hand-held camera work. The steadicam's armature absorbs the jerks, bumps, and other small movements of the operator, while smoothly following the broad movements needed to cover any given scene, such as moving over uneven terrain or through a crowd.
The steadicam was invented in the early 1970s by inventor and cameraman Garrett Brown , who originally named the invention the "Brown Stabilizer". After completing the first working prototype, Mr. Brown shot a 10-minute demo reel of the revolutionary moves this new device could produce.
The reel was seen by numerous directors, including Stanley Kubrick and John Avildsen . Avildsen directed '' Rocky '' in 1976, one of the first movies to feature steadicam shots. The Steadicam was first used in the Biopic '' Bound For Glory '', whilst Kubrick would use the Brown Stabilizer in his 1980 film '' The Shining ''.
Though he was not the first to use it in a mainstream film, Kubrick's use of the steadicam in '' The Shining '' is considered the first breakthrough of the technology. The long, fluid tracking shots through the Overlook Hotel of the film had enormous impact on other filmmakers. Both Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese have specifically noted the low tracking shots Kubrick made of the boy Danny riding his Big Wheel through the lobby of the Overlook. Because the steadicam could position the camera so close to the ground, the shots are impossible with any sort of Dolly track.
The invention was exclusively licensed by Cinema Products Corporation and later brought to market as the Steadicam. As of October 2000, Steadicam® became a trademark of camera manufacturer Tiffen. {Link without Title}
The operator wears a harness which is attached to an Iso-elastic arm. This is connected by a Gimbal to the steadicam armature which has the camera mounted at one end and a counterbalance weight at the other. The counterbalance usually includes the Battery pack and a monitor. The monitor substitutes for the camera's viewfinder, since the range of motion of the camera relative to the operator makes the camera's own viewfinder unusable. In the film industry the armature and weight are traditionally called the "sled", as they resembled a Sled in an early model of the steadicam.
The combined weight of the counterbalance and camera means that the armature bears a relatively high Inertia l mass which will not be easily moved by small body movements from the operator (much like it is difficult to quickly shake a Bowling Ball ). The freely pivoting armature adds additional stabilization to the photographed image, and makes the weight of the camera-sled assembly acceptable by allowing the body harness to support it.
When the armature is correctly adjusted, the operator is able to remove his hands from the steadicam entirely and have the camera stay in place. During operation, the operator usually rests his/her hand on the the camera Gimbal and applies force at that point to move the camera. To avoid shaking the camera when lens adjustments must be made during the shot, a wireless remote operated by the camera assistant is used to control focus and iris.
For low shots, the camera/sled arm can be rotated vertically, putting the camera where the sled normally sits and vice-versa; since both camera and display are inverted, the operator still sees a correctly oriented picture. The upside-down image recorded by the camera can be fixed in Post-production .
Today the steadicam is a standard piece of film-making equipment, used in many productions. They have been used to great effect in some notable movies including:
- '' Bound For Glory '' (1976), the first feature production to use the Steadicam.
- '' Marathon Man '' (1976), the first feature released with Steadicam shots (although these were shot after ''Bound for Glory'')
- '' Rocky '' (1976), during its training montage sequence (including the famous run up a flight of museum steps) and certain fight scenes. It can even be seen in the high angle wide shots of the ring. Garrett Brown was credited for ''Special Camera Effects''.
- '' Halloween (1978 Film) '' (1978), the opening sequence of young Michael Myers finding a knife in the family kitchen, putting on a mask, walking up the stairs and murdering his sister. The sequence was actually shot in three separate takes and spliced together with invisible cuts.
- In every Wise Kids movies the steadicam is used for some scenes.
- Director Martin Scorsese has made extensive use of the steadicam in many of his movies:
- ---'' Raging Bull '' (1980) features a long steadicam shot that follows boxer Jake Lamotta ( Robert De Niro ) from his dressing room through a crowd of 2,000 extras posing as spectators and into the ring.
- --- In '' Goodfellas '' (1990), the camera follows Henry Hill ( Ray Liotta ) from the street, behind a building and down stairs to a service entrance, through a long hallway, through the kitchen, and to the stage of the Copacabana in a three-minute long tracking shot.
- There is a long steadicam shot like this in '' Boogie Nights '' (1997), which was filmed with a Steadicam operator standing on a crane platform, then stepping off to follow the central character through a night club. Director P.T. Anderson has acknowledged that this is an homage to Scorsese. There is also a steadicam shot later in the film occurring at a pool party in which the camera follows a young woman into a pool and goes underwater, an homage to " Soy Cuba ", a Russian/Cuban film famous for its elaborate pre-steadicam long takes done entirely handheld.
- This award-winning shot by Larry McConkey was acknowledged as the best example of steadicam work in Jon Favreau's '' Swingers ''.
- Several tracking shots of Danny the little boy on his tricycle in '' The Shining '' (1980).
- '' Return Of The Jedi '' (1983) used the steadicam with two cross-mounted Gyroscope s for additional stability to film the background plates for the speeder bike sequence. The sequence was shot at less than one frame per second, then sped up to the normal 24 frames per second in post production.Brown, Garrett. "Steadicam Plates for Return of the Jedi" , ''American Cinematographer'', June 1983.
- American director Brian De Palma frequently uses continuous steadicam shots to narrate his films. Most notable among these are:
- --- The opening shot of '' The Bonfire Of The Vanities '' (1990) is a four-minute long trek through the bowels of a city building, starting from an underground parking garage and ending on the lobby floor.
- --- In '' Snake Eyes '' (1998), there is a 20 minute sequence of steadicam shots that initially appear to be one shot, but are actually eight takes spliced together with invisible wipes.
- --- '' Carlito's Way '' (1993) has two such shots—one that lasts two minutes of winding on and off a subway train, and the other lasting four minutes, going up and down an escalator.
- The M56 Smart Gun s used by the United States Colonial Marines in '' Aliens '' (1986), used CP mk III steadicams with the sleds removed and a modified MG42 Machine Gun fitted to them.
- In '' Titanic '' (1997), Jim Muro used the steadicam to great effect in many of the shots taken running through the decks and corridors of the ship. A notable sequence is the scene of Caledon Hockley chasing Jack and Rose with a gun down Titanic's Grand Staircase.
- '' American Pie '' (1999) and '' American Pie 2 '' (2001) both had a Steadicam sequence wandering through a House Party at the Stiflers' house.
- 24 (TV Series) (2001-2007) is filmed almost entirely with Steadicam.
- '' Russian Ark '' (2002), in which the entire movie consists of one uninterrupted 90-minute steadicam shot, with the camera following the principal character as he wanders through the Hermitage , the palatial museum in Saint Petersburg .
- '' Before Sunset '' (2004) is an example of the use of steadicams in a modern Independent Film production, featuring 7–8 minute shots of its two main characters strolling down Parisian streets. Jim McConkey, the movie's steadicam operator, also served as camera and steadicam operator for The New World which was nominated for an Academy Award for cinematography.
- '' The West Wing '' (1999–2006) is noted for its steadicam tracking shots, long sequences showing staff members walking down hallways. In a typical tracking shot, the camera follows two characters down the halls as they converse. One of these characters generally breaks off and the remaining character is joined by another character who initiates another conversation as they continue walking, leading to such scenes being dubbed Walk And Talk s.
- '' Green Wing '' (2004-2007) often uses a steadicam for most of its scenes. It also slows down and speeds up footage in order to create more humor.
- '' LOST '' (2004-2007) has been credited for using Steadicam in many of its episodes, one of which was the series pilot episode. In the plane scenes, Steadicam was used the whole time to make the shakes on the plane look more natural and more real.
- The opening shot of the interior of the title ship in the movie '' Serenity '' (2005) was shot with a steadicam. The shot last gives the appearance that it is one continuous shot lasting for almost five minutes. It is actually two shots connected together with an invisible dissolve during a Whip Pan as the shot moves down stairs. Each floor of the set of the vessel Serenity was constructed on a separate stage.
- '' Tom-Yum-Goong '' (2005) features a four-minute long steadicam shot following the protagonist encountering and dispatching a number of combatants as he ascends up a multi-story building.
- The steadicam was and is still used in almost every episode of the TV show "ER". Featuring both short shots lasting 30 seconds or so up to longer several minute long shots. Terence Nightingall has been the show's operator for many years now.
- The French thriller " Irréversible " is composed entirely of approximately a dozen individual long takes edited together to look like a single cut with many of its scenes filmed on steadicam.
- The 2004 British Comedy-Horror film '' Shaun Of The Dead '' used the Steadicam in two shots that follow the main character, Shaun, through his daily routine. One before and one after the zombie outbreak. Each shot had to be carefully choreographed to ensure identicality.
- The 2006 Dystopian film '' Children Of Men '' was nominated by the Academy for its cinematography which was made up largely of third-person steadicam and handheld shots.
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